How to Use Crowdfunding for Product Development

• Thursday, March 9th, 2017
• Blog
• one response

Crowdfunding’s primary goal is to help you get the funds you need to finish your product and get it ready for mass distribution. But a crowdfunding campaign can help you with a lot more. For instance, did you know that you can learn a lot about product development through crowdfunding? Even if you don’t reach your goal, you can still get a lot of valuable insights from your campaign. Here’s how:

1. You Can Measure Market Readiness

We already know that not all products are suitable for crowdfunding success. But will yours succeed in the “real world”? The performance of the crowdfunding campaign can help you see whether your product will succeed out there.

This is not just about reaching your goal or about how many people purchase your product through Kickstarter or Indiegogo. If backers can pledge money on things of little value like a “thank you” line in a Tweet, a T-shirt, or a mug, then you know you’ve got a winner and you can move forward with product development.

2. You Can Get Valuable Feedback to Help You with Product Development

After shipping the products to your backers, expect honest feedback to pour in. Remember that these people waited for as long as one year to get their hands on your product, so they’re going to test it heavily and be very honest about the results. Don’t expect rose petals and tears of joy. Expect something constructive that can truly help your product development.

Even if you didn’t reach your goal and you won’t even ship any products, you can still gather some feedback. Ask the people who pledged why they did so. Go even deeper and ask them why they only bought a T-shirt and not the product. You will get insights about pricing and features that you can use in the future.

3. You Can Involve Backers in Product Development

The good news about this is that you can do it as soon as you launch. Ask visitors to tell you what they would add to the product. Ask them what colors they would like you to add to the existing palette.

If you have a stretch goal, get feedback on that, too. Ask if they would use the additional features you plan to implement before investing too much work in them. Use both your campaign page and your social media profiles for this.

4. Engage Your Audience

Don’t forget about the people who pledged money or simply liked your Facebook page after reading your pitch. They were the first to express interest in your product, so you should always keep them close.

Even when your campaign is over, keep using your social profiles. Ask them questions about future product development and keep them involved. Odds are that, irrespective of your crowdfunding campaign success or failure, they’ll be the first to try out your new products.

Adriana Tica

Adriana Tica is an expert marketer and copywriter, with 10 years in the field, most of which were spent marketing tech companies. She is the Owner and Founder of Idunn. In October 2019, she also launched Copywritech, a digital marketing agency that provides copywriting, SEO content writing, and strategy services to companies in the tech industry.